Anita Bonds

Anita Bonds
Member of the Council of the District of Columbia, At-Large
Incumbent
Assumed office 2012
Preceded by	Phil Mendelson
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	University of California, Berkley

Anita Bonds (born 1945) is a Democratic politician in Washington, D.C. She is an at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia. She has been the Chairman of the District of Columbia Democratic State Committee since 2006. She worked as an executive at Fort Meyer Construction, a District contractor.

Early life

Bonds was raised in Southeast Washington, D.C. She attended college at University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in chemistry.

Career

Bonds helped run Marion Barry's first campaign for the District of Columbia Board of Education in 1971. She was elected Ward 2 delegate to the Black Political Convention in 1972. In 1973, she ran in a special election for the Ward 2 seat on the District of Columbia Board of Education. Bill Treanor won the election with 62 percent of the vote. Bonds worked as ward and precinct coordinator for Clifford Alexander's campaign for District mayor in 1974. She served as deputy campaign manager for Barry's 1978 and 1982 bids for District mayor. In 1979, Mayor Barry named Bonds special assistant for constituent services.

Bonds served as manager of John L. Ray's reelection campaign for at-large councilmember in 1980. In 1983, Bonds was director of the District of Columbia Office of Community Services. She served on Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign in 1984. She was campaign manager for Barry's bid for a third term as District mayor in 1986.

In 1990, Bonds helped the defense attorney in Marion Barry's drug and perjury charges. In 1994, Bonds became special assistant to District Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly's chief of staff, Karen A. Tramontano. In May 1998, Bonds was named campaign manager for Councilmember Harold Brazil's bid for District mayor. In August 1998, she left that role after a campaign reorganization.

From 2004 to 2005, she served as director of the mayor's Office of Community Affairs. In 2005, she became a senior adviser to Council member Kwame R. Brown.

Councilmember

In November 2012, Democrat Phil Mendelson won a special election to become the chair of the Council of the District of Columbia, creating a vacancy of his former seat as at-large member of the Council. District of Columbia law provides that, in the event of a vacancy of an at-large seat on the Council, the political party of the former incumbent shall decide who will fill the seat until a special election can be held.

Bonds announced that she would seek to be selected to hold the at-large Council seat. Douglass Sloan, a public affairs consultant and Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for Riggs Park, and John Capozzi, former Shadow U.S. Representative and former at-large member of the District of Columbia Democratic State Committee, announced that they would also seek the selection. In a vote by the D.C. Democratic State Committee, Bonds received 55 of the 71 votes cast, winning the selection process. Bonds was sworn in as councilmember on December 11, 2012.

Bonds won reelection in the 2013 special election.

Election results

2013 Council of the District of Columbia, At Large, Special Election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Anita Bonds	18,027	31
	Democratic	Elissa Silverman	15,228	27
	Republican	Patrick Mara	13,698	24
	Democratic	Matthew Frumin	6,307	11
	Democratic	Paul Zuckerberg	1,195	2
	Democratic	Michael A. Brown	1,100	2
	D.C. Statehood Green	Perry Redd	1,090	2
		Write-in	187	0

Committees

Bonds currently serves on the following committees:

• Committee on Housing and Community Development (Chair)
• Committee on Judiciary
• Committee on Education

References

Council of the District of Columbia
Preceded by Phil Mendelson	At-Large Member, Council of the District of Columbia 2012 – present	Incumbent